Dealing with Danger
Dealing with Danger is the third installment of the Dangerverse ''series by Anne B. Walsh, preceded by ''Living without Danger and followed by Facing Danger. Started in 2005 and finished in 2006, Dealing with Danger is 469,791 words long, beating even the longest book in the original Harry Potter series. Dealing with Danger consists of 53 chapters, and is the story of the Pride's third and fourth years (last as an apprentice and first as a student in Meghan's case) at Hogwarts. Summaries Synopsis !Spoiler Warning! Year Three The Pack-parents prepare to teach the Pride how to become Animagi as part of their summer of war games, but the fun is interrupted by news that Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew have escaped from Azkaban. Sirius re-qualifies to be an Auror, and Aletha's aunt Amy, who works in an American wizarding bank, sends the Pack advice about stopping Lucius from getting access to his money. The current Minister of Magic dies under suspicious circumstances, putting Cornelius Fudge back into power, and Nymphadora Tonks discovers her mother Andromeda murdered in their home, apparently to keep her from finishing a potion she hoped would help Frank and Alice Longbottom regain their sanity. This spurs Aletha to return to Healer training and Draco to run away, his objective being to keep the Pack safe, though he agrees to come home when he learns that the wards on the Marauders' Den work better with him present. At Diagon Alley, Hermione purchases Crookshanks and Draco gets a new owl, leaving Harry with Hedwig. Harry jokingly says that he always gets the old stuff and makes a half-serious bargain with the Pack-parents that when he next needs a new broom, he can have a Firebolt. Remus, as the new Defense teacher, agrees to supervise the cubs' visits to Hogsmeade, and the Marauders' special compartment on the Hogwarts Express, enlarged in wizardspace, is found to still be active. Danger, Harry, and Draco react worst to the dementors on the train; Luna says she is listening to something she will need to remember. Harry saves Draco from being hurt by Buckbeak the hippogriff at the cost of a small wound of his own, healed by Meghan; Hagrid later discovers that Buckbeak tried to attack Draco not because of any insult offered but because someone had thrown a rock at Buckbeak. In the course of making it up to Buckbeak, Draco becomes fond of the hippogriff, and vice versa. Neither Harry nor Draco is allowed to face the boggart in Remus's first lesson, to avoid panic in the classroom (Harry's boggart would be Voldemort and Draco's, his father). Ginny joins the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a reserve Chaser and Seeker. Remus and Danger begin a Combat Club at Hogwarts, an extension of the summer's war games. On Halloween night, Hermione and Crookshanks between them foil an attempt by Wormtail to abduct Meghan. Tonks discovers a torn piece of parchment which throws the motive (and responsible party) for Andromeda's murder into doubt. At the first Quidditch match, Harry is affected by the dementors and falls from his broom; Ron catches him, but his Nimbus Two Thousand is destroyed by the Whomping Willow, bringing into play the earlier promise about a Firebolt. Remus agrees to teach Harry the Patronus charm. Neville's identity as a blood Heir of Hufflepuff is established, and Andromeda's potion, which Aletha finished for her, is administered to the Longbottoms. Neville and Meghan, with the support of the Pride, use their powers as Heirs to complete the healing process, restoring Frank and Alice to sanity. Draco has a brief encounter with Lucius in a dream and declares that he will never return to his father willingly. Sirius comforts Danger through her unhappiness that she can never bear Remus' children (in the Dangerverse, lycanthropy involves sterility); Remus sees snatches of this memory, misinterprets it, and accidentally reawakens his uncontrolled werewolf self, but Danger is able to call his human mind back in time. Draco receives a glass globe engraved with runes, supposedly a study aid, for Christmas. Harry's Patronus lessons begin, with his memory of the day of Sirius's vindication and the Pack's freedom the most useful. Draco joins him for one lesson, after which, to Remus's surprise, he goes into a boys' bathroom and smashes the mirrors; he later admits that he hates looking like his father and feels torn between his birth and his raising. Harry manages to cast a corporeal Patronus (in the shape of a stag) at the second Quidditch match, though the dementors were illusory, a test set up by Sirius. Ron witnesses a prophecy by Professor Trelawney, in which she states that "souls shall join against the darkness", "the faithful three ride again", and "revenge and mercy wreak havoc alike". The Marauder's Map reveals that one of its creators was an Heir of one of the Hogwarts Founders, meaning the Map can know things about the castle that its makers did not. Hermione drinks the potion which will allow her body to complete the Animagus transformation. Draco sends Harry a message via paper bird at the final Quidditch match, allowing Gryffindor to win; this action is used against him during a Potions mock-test, leading to Draco's hysterical accusation that the Pack-parents only took him in because they had to do so. He bolts back to Gryffindor Tower and uses his glass globe "study aid" to try to calm himself. Unbeknownst to Draco, the globe came from his father and contains a curse which has been working on his thoughts for months. He is falling under it when Luna Sees it on him in the shape of a snake and screams. The curse attempts to make Draco silence her; he fights it, and it throws him into a coma-like state. He is taken to the hospital wing, where the Pack-parents (and the Pride, listening from the Hogwarts Den) are informed that the only way to treat a curse is to transfer it to another person who fits its parameters, and this cannot be done with fatal curses. Shortly thereafter, Draco stops breathing. Hermione realizes within a few moments that her pendants are hot, indicating emotional distress, not cold, meaning death. The curse is fooling them; Draco is alive, his body held in stasis but his mind awake (and panicking, until Hermione uses her pendant chain to reassure him). Ron volunteers to take the curse on himself, since he fits the parameters of "male pureblood teenager" with which the curse was cast. Luna requests that her Seeing power be taken from her, and with the help of a blue jewel from her pendants, this is done. She can restore it with another jewel, but if she does so, she can never send it away again. During the final Combat Club match of the year, scheduled on a full moon from necessity, Harry, Draco, and Hermione are abducted by Malfoy and Wormtail. Harry is held under the Body-Bind, and drifts in and out of consciousness; Draco and Hermione awaken tied back to back, having had a magical blood-bonding performed on them to make them the twins they once pretended to be, which allows them to speak mentally with physical contact. Malfoy informs them that the bond is intended to reverse the supposed theft of Draco's magic for Hermione's benefit, and that he plans to kill Hermione once he has transferred her magic to Draco. Pretending to be swayed by his father's words, Draco asks that they be allowed to say goodbye face to face and in privacy, which request Malfoy grants; Hermione speaks her Animagus incantation, completing her first transformation into calico cat form. Although Luna has lost her active Seeing power, she remembers what she was told near the beginning of the year, and sends Ginny to give Buckbeak a piece of Draco's clothing so that he can find his friend. Ron recalls how he located Ginny the year before with the help of a red pendant jewel, and Remus does the same to discover that the cubs have been taken to the Shrieking Shack. Harry fully awakens and uses an Arithmancy unlocking pattern to break the Body-Bind, catching Wormtail by surprise and taking his wand but letting him live. Buckbeak arrives at the Shrieking Shack, and Draco tosses cat-Hermione out the window to ride away on him, then uses a green pendant jewel to pass through the wall and join her after blinding Malfoy with an exploding Combat Club wand filled with red dye. Sirius and Aletha head for the Shrieking Shack (Remus and Danger must wait until the moon has risen) and find Harry there, holding Malfoy at wandpoint. They take the two Death Eaters and Harry back through the passage into Hogwarts, but Malfoy falls deliberately on a flask of sleeping potion he was carrying. Sirius recognizes the smell of the vapor, tells Aletha to run, and pushes Harry out of range, though he is caught by the potion himself. Wormtail also takes the opportunity to escape, and Aletha chases him, using a heat-sight spell on her eyes to find his trail. Buckbeak, who breathed some of this same potion earlier, is forced to land, so that Draco and Hermione must walk the rest of the way back to Hogwarts. The moon now up, Remus and Danger go to the Shrieking Shack, hoping to catch Malfoy before he can leave. All three Pack-groups—Harry guarding the semi-conscious Sirius, Aletha, and Draco and Hermione—are caught by dementors, and must produce their Patronuses (the stag, the dog, and, pooling their magic across the twin-bond to perform the spell, the werewolf) to save themselves. To do so, Aletha is forced to let Wormtail escape entirely. Danger, seeking a small revenge which will satisfy Remus's werewolf side, bites Malfoy herself before returning to the castle with her mate. Draco decides that he does not want his father to undergo the Dementor's Kiss, and Malfoy is returned to Azkaban. Dudley Dursley is revealed, to readers and Theodore Nott, to have been helping Malfoy and Wormtail get onto Hogwarts grounds. In his cell in Azkaban, as the first full moon after his recapture nears, Lucius Malfoy begins to fall ill... Year Four Sirius warns Remus just in time that Lucius Malfoy has become a werewolf and the Ministry plans to investigate. Under magical law, Remus is not permitted to live in the same place as children, so he must leave the Den and send a backdated resignation to Hogwarts. Rita Skeeter falsely spins the story of Draco's money being deposited in Remus's vault, then colors her testimony about the way Sirius has treated Draco to have Draco taken from the Pack and placed in temporary fostering with the Notts. After three days apart, Danger and Remus both become seriously ill; when they are reunited, the symptoms vanish, and Aletha postulates that they are magical symbiotes, linked in both body and soul. Professor Dumbledore advises that the Pack ask to have Draco sent to the Longbottoms, and that Remus attempt to have his status as Hermione's guardian formally recognized. Meghan and Neville use their powers to partially heal a burn on Dumbledore's hand by transferring the ongoing curse causing it to a pernicious weed which grows nearby. Aletha recognizes the symptoms Danger exhibits when apart from Remus as a Muggle disease called lupus. Hermione, visiting Draco at the Notts' in her cat form, informs him that Patroclus Nott is using a Healing potion to try to weaken his memories of the Pack. The Pack recalls that Draco's blood is now mixed with Hermione's, which means Danger is his guardian under magical law and can (and does) request a different fostering situation for him. Harry learns the story of a day his father humiliated Snape and is ashamed, but uses his first Animagus transformation to settle himself. Dumbledore takes him to meet Horace Slughorn, and Harry uses his wolflike sense of smell to play on Slughorn's emotions and win a memory from him, though he agrees not to ask Dumbledore what the memory is yet. The majority of the Pack, the Pride, the Weasleys, and the Longbottoms attend the Quidditch World Cup, where the Pride ends up near a mysterious person who sets off the Dark Mark and the casewizard who accepted Rita Skeeter's testimony is revealed to be a secret Death Eater. Draco is allowed to return to the Pack, and Remus is also allowed limited, supervised visits. At Diagon Alley, Ginny buys a tiny owl and names him Pigwidgeon. Meghan befriends fellow first years Natalie Macdonald and Graham Pritchard, the latter of whom is Sorted into Slytherin, as Meghan almost is herself (she stops the Hat and demands to be placed in Gryffindor). Mad-Eye Moody arrives to take the Defense position, and the Triwizard Tournament is announced. With the cubs away at school, Remus can return to the Den. Hermione helps Ron write his Animagus incantation, as Ginny did with Harry the year before. Harry demonstrates how he would place his name in the Goblet of Fire if he wanted to (a Levitating Spell) with a blank slip of parchment. Hermione's staff work garners a secret admirer, later established as Viktor Krum. Harry is unexpectedly chosen by the Goblet as the fourth Triwizard competitor. After Ron disbelieves Harry's protestations of innocence, Harry hides in the Hogwarts Den and seals most of the entrances against his friends, but Meghan, Neville, and Graham Pritchard cooperate to get Hermione in through the Slytherin common room. Harry emerges, and Ron apologizes without words, simultaneously, though jokingly, transferring all his friends' troubles to Snape. Remus's custody hearing sparks protests at the Marauders' Den, leading to Tonks being assigned as Remus's bodyguard. Fenrir Greyback corners Danger and threatens her and Hermione; Remus burns his clothes as a warning. The Pack-parents come to Hogsmeade, and Moody invites them to have a drink. Remus catches the scent from his hip flask, and Aletha identifies it as Polyjuice Potion. Hagrid lets Harry see the dragons for the first task, and the Pride helps Harry realize he will have the advantage if he can fly. During the first task, Remus enters Moody's office and investigates his trunk, where the real Moody is hidden. Ron transforms into hawk shape to open the window so Harry can Summon his broom; the false Moody attempts to take him hostage as he escapes, but is foiled by Neville, at whom he shouts that he should have killed him when he had the chance. Harry discovers that the Hogwarts Den can shield the effects of his scar's link to Voldemort. Rita Skeeter tries to blackmail Ron on the basis of his illegal (underage) Animagus work. The real Moody takes over as Defense professor. Hermione is permitted to testify at the custody hearing, with both her individual Patronus (the lion) and her combined one with Draco (the werewolf) swaying the final decision that Remus's request should be granted. While Pack and Pride celebrate in the Hogwarts kitchens, Ron offers to have his family take Winky on as their house-elf, and Winky accepts. Tonks reveals to Aletha that her bodyguard duties have led to her having a crush on Remus; Aletha, knowing that Charlie Weasley is about to propose marriage, as Tonks earlier stated she wanted, reluctantly gives Tonks a love potion keyed to Charlie. Neville, invisible in his Animagus form, the demiguise, goes with Ron to his interview with Rita Skeeter, at which she betrays her own illegal Animagus form. Neville asks Meghan to the Yule Ball; after finding out Luna will be away over the holidays, Draco asks Ginny. Hermione, angry at Ron's not asking her, accepts when Viktor Krum asks her, leaving Harry to go with Parvati (after discovering Cho is going with Cedric) and Ron with Lavender Brown. Luna comes to the dance unexpectedly, making Draco happy, but Neville refuses to deepen his relationship with Meghan, angering her. The cubs' Christmas gifts from their great-aunt Amy arrive, portable Floo devices known as Zippophones (analogous to cell phones); Rita Skeeter breaks the story about Hagrid's background, and the Pride goes to cheer him up while the Pack-parents stage a scene which allows Remus to capture Skeeter's bug form and inform her that she will be keeping her quill to herself. An accidental bespelling by Ron leads to the discovery that Harry's golden egg sounds different underwater, and the Pride has a pool party in the Hogwarts Den bathroom. Hermione and Ron remove their pendants to be hostages for the second task; Ron awakens under the lake after the allowed hour, and Harry and Ron are attacked on their way back to shore, all of which are later determined to be sabotage by an unknown party (though Dudley Dursley was seen with his wand in the water). The points for the second task are halved, and an auxiliary task is added to the Tournament: a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, in which all the champions must take part. Dumbledore, Moody, and the Pack-parents determine that the sabotage of the task was done by three different people. Harry produces the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat, and Dumbledore names him Gryffindor's Heir, though he has never demonstrated fire magic, leading the Pack-parents to speculate that James Potter might have bound it when Harry was a baby. Draco takes the lead role in Joseph, while Harry plays Pharaoh, Krum Potiphar, Cedric the Baker and Fleur one of the brothers. Tonks discovers Aletha's use of a love potion and challenges her on it in public; Remus admits to Danger that had she never existed, he might have been attracted to Tonks. Percy, worried about Mr. Crouch, goes to his home to check on him, running afoul of Voldemort and company but also setting off Ron and Ginny's pendants, which allows Harry to send Sirius (via Zippophone) to rescue him. Percy states that he saw Mr. Crouch dead and that Karkaroff attacked him, but Crouch is later found alive, throwing doubt on Percy's other identification as well. Harry dodges a falling backdrop at a final rehearsal for Joseph, and Charlie sends Tonks a message in the program, reminding her that love potions only last for two months (meaning her love for him, which lasted longer, must have been real). Krum flirts with Hermione at the show afterparty, and Harry gets a second chance to dance with Cho. The third task is revealed, and the Pride helps Harry collect and learn a series of spells which might be useful. Moody uses his final Defense class to give his students a basic lesson on the use of deadly force. Harry dreams of Voldemort's hideout; his dream form is sensed by Nagini, but his friends awaken him before Voldemort can confront him. On the morning of the third task, Hermione reviews her notes on Portkeys aloud, including that they are made by the There-And-Back-Again Spell. Harry and Cedric are both Portkeyed to the graveyard by the Triwizard Cup, but Harry is able to warn Cedric in time for him to run. Dumbledore sets out to stop Danger, who has discovered that Karkaroff killed her mother and wants revenge. Harry puts out the fire while Wormtail is working to resurrect Voldemort; later, the ropes holding him burn, allowing him to sneak away in wolf form and kill Nagini when she tries to stop him. Luna restores her Seeing power and discovers that Voldemort was behind her mother's death. Ginny realizes the Pride can share their magic with Harry. Dumbledore stops Danger from killing Karkaroff, then leaves them alone; Karkaroff attempts to escape, and Remus is forced to kill him. Cedric tries to help Harry, but both of them are caught by the resurrected Voldemort. Harry agrees to duel Voldemort if he lets Cedric go; Voldemort agrees, then kills Cedric as he tries to get enough distance to Apparate. Luna uses her Seeing power to distract Voldemort, and Harry Stuns him from behind, then, reminded by the Pride's magic what Hermione said the Portkey spell was called, uses the Triwizard Cup to return himself and Cedric's body to Hogwarts. Krum, under Karkaroff's Imperius, is discovered to be the source of some of the attacks on Harry through the year. Harry tells his story and is comforted by the Pack. Crouch aligns himself with Dumbledore, against Fudge and the mainline Ministry. To keep Harry's mind safe from Voldemort's attacks, it is decided, reluctantly, that Harry must go to the Dursleys' home for part of the summer. Harry attempts Occlumency and fails, in the process discovering that his power for controlling fire is not yet unbound, as he had thought it might be. Krum says goodbye to Hermione, telling her that he thinks Ron will have her heart someday. Harry starts to get into a snit about being abandoned by Pack and Pride, but Dumbledore and Sirius (also "exiled" for the moment, as ambassador to the purebloods) both remind him that this is temporary and he should be able to return home soon. (They hope...) Chapters # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # External links * * Category:Stories: Main Dangerverse